Madame Shanghai

Yum Cha at Madame Shanghai is not your regular experience. For a start you're sitting in a sumptuous, decorative space reminiscent of an art deco Shanghai tea house complete with rattan fans, azure velvety curtains and richly-coloured and brocaded fabrics. The chopsticks are topped with silver or gold, ceramics are glossy and black, and there's not a steaming trolley or brusque waiter to be found.

There is, however, a nod to the cavernous yum cha halls we know and love, albeit with tongue firmly in cheek: we order by stamping the face of a green panda next to dishes we want on a printed menu. It's a bit of a gimmick, given the attentive service, but the panda stamp is a hit with our daughter

The dumplings include soupy xiao long bao, sweet, meaty parcels of prawn and calamari, and elegantly made bundles of scallop with snow pea tendrils. The barbecue pork buns could have done with a little extra seasoning but a double dip in fiery chilli sauce offers a quick fix. With only nine dumplings on the yum cha list, you'll probably want to try some dishes from the main menu as well.

One of the selling points of Madame Shanghai – the latest effort from Lotus Dining, which has restaurants in Walsh Bay and Barangaroo – is how chef Chris Yan utilises Australian ingredients in his cooking. So native pepper berry brings an intriguing herbal quality to fried calamari with chilli salt. And pork hock with tamarind includes rosella flowers, which provide an extra chewy texture to the gelatinous meat and the nicely sweet, sour and sticky sauce.

There's also shaokao-style barbecue, although the dishes are much fancier than the traditional fare you'd find on a street corner in China. Charred sweetcorn is doused in mayonnaise and topped with fine bonito flakes, which move and sway with the residual heat.

A special of duck pancakes goes down a treat. While it lacks the gloriously burnished skin of your typical Peking duck, the punchy hoi sin and extra pancakes on request give it our table's panda stamp of approval.

Cocktails include a Shanghai Mimosa with yuzu and quince, and a Bloody Madame that combines charcoal-roasted tomatoes and vodka with shochu, miso and bergamot, and is topped with olives, a dried chilli and bonito flakes. The wine list is global, intriguing and adventurous, with a sommelier on site to help. Another panda stamp for that.

- Sally Webb

18 College St, Darlinghurst; (02) 8318 8618; lotusdining.com.au/restaurant/madame-shanghai

The Lune Lab

Lune Lab, Fitzroy. Photo: Bonnie Savage

Where Kate Reid goes, queues follow. The aerospace engineer turned croissant queen used to hand out tickets guaranteeing pastries to the first eight earlybirds lining up outside her bijou bakery to prevent fisticuffs. These days, Lune occupies a vast, purpose built bakery in a Fitzroy lane and production has increased eightfold. Nonetheless, FOMO breaks out every second month when she releases bookings for a weekend-only pastry degustation known as the Lune Lab.

To recap, Lune began in a tiny Elwood kitchen, soon attracting lines 100-deep for her meticulously made croissants, cruffins (a croissant-muffin hybrid) and kouign-amann (a caramelised pastry swirl). Unable to meet demand, Reid and brother Cameron teamed up with hospopreneur Nathan Toleman, shifting the bakery to an absurdly huge former warehouse with a climate-controlled glass box at its heart.

The Lune Lab is the peak experience. If you manage to secure a spot, you can skip the still-inevitable queue and slide onto a stool for a three-course pastry "flight": a splintery, airy croissant warm from the oven followed by savoury and sweet experimental pasties, which change with each menu.

And by experimental, we're talking seasonal ideas like a vol-au-vent-style pastry filled with a wintry slow-cooked pork hock and peas, with a side of celeriac remoulade, or a danish-inspired pastry with confit garlic, cool vinaigrette-tossed tomatoes, burrata and basil oil in summer.

It might be chased by a millefeuille layered with roasted pear, caramel and thyme, or a how-does-she-do-it danish cradling a square of crème brûlée and rhubarb purée.

Reid says the Lune Lab is a chance to recapture the early frisson, when people started arriving at 3am just to see what she'd come up with next and the kitchen was so near the counter she could chat to customers as she handed over their pastries.

To nab a stool at the Lune Lab, you must be quick on the draw with a mouse. Just eight seats are available at each sitting, 8.30am and 11am every Saturday and Sunday. Two months' worth of places are released on the Lune website at 7.30pm around the third Tuesday of every second month, usually snapped up fast. For those who miss out, console yourself with 15 different pastries on sale at the counter. But first, get in line.

- Roslyn Grundy

119 Rose Street, Fitzroy; lunecroissanterie.com